THE COLLEGE OF THE BAHAMAS
Course Outline
Title: West Indian Literature: Decolonisation, Regeneration, Creolisation
Abbreviation and Number: ENGL213
AB Paper No.: 15-40
School: English Studies
Department: English
Credits: 3
Course Sequence: ( X ) Fall
( ) Spring
( ) Fall and Spring
( 3 ) Lecture
( ) Seminar
( ) Laboratory
( ) Studio
Hours Per Week:
( ) Other (Specify)
Pre-requisite(s): ENGW120/ENG 120 or permission of Chair/Instructor
Co-requisite(s): None
(
) Kitchen
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Students are introduced to selected West Indian authors and their works. An overview of the major historical, social,
and cultural experiences that have shaped the region’s literature grounds the examination of both thematic and
stylistic elements in West Indian fiction, poetry and drama.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to
1. discuss the ways in which Caribbean historical, political and cultural particularities have impacted the
development of Caribbean literature;
2. identify the major themes – race, class, gender, sexuality, nationalism, transnationalism – that recur in West
Indian texts;
3. discuss the key concepts in defining Caribbean/diasporan identity;
4. discuss the ways in which the construction of various aspects of identity are negotiated in the literature;
5. define and utilise key literary terms and concepts in ways appropriate to understanding and discussing various
genre of West Indian literature;
6. critique the stylistic features of West Indian writing; and
7. construct literary argument and produce focused, well-argued essays.
COURSE CONTENT
I.
Context
A. Historical
i. Slavery
ii. Colonisation
iii. Decolonisation
iv. Independence
v. Migration
vi. Diaspora
B. Social
i. Race and its complexities
ii. Language and its ability to oppress, marginalise, or free
iii. Gender and Sexuality issues
a) Patriarchy
b) The absent father
c) The female experience of double colonization
d) Male/female relationships
e) Sexual identities
The College of The Bahamas
AB Paper No.: 15-40
Course Outline
Title: West Indian Literature: Decolonisation, Regeneration, Creolisation
Abbreviation and Number: ENGL213
C. Cultural
i. Relationships between oral and written traditions
Influences of African and European oral forms on writing
a) Folklore
b) Myth
c) Storytelling
d) Folk poetry
e) Children’s games
f) Extempo
g) Picong
h) Calypso
ii. Dialect in literature
a) Re-conception of dialect: from vernacular to “Nation Language”
b) Creole continuum
iii. Influence of other cultural forms
a) Secular and religious festivals
b) Local musical traditions
II.
Genres and Literary Elements
A. Fiction
i. Form, structure and plot
a) Incorporation of oral forms
b) Non-linear temporal structure
c) Subversion
d) Folk novels
e) Allegory
ii. Language
a) Fusional narrative technique: balance of oral and scribal
b) Code switching
c) West Indian coinages
d) Word play
e) Paradox and oxymoron
f) West Indian metaphor and archetype
iii. Voice and tone
a) Reproduction of cadence of West Indian speech
b) Voice of the marginalized
c) West Indian metaphor and archetype
B. Poetry
i. Form and Structure
a) West Indian versions of European forms
b) Merging of Western and non-Western traditions
c) Incorporation of musical forms such as blues, jazz and reggae
d) African-derived oral traditions, for example, call and response and incantation
e) Dub poetry and rapso
ii. Language
a) Incorporation of foreign languages
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The College of The Bahamas
AB Paper No.: 15-40
Course Outline
Title: West Indian Literature: Decolonisation, Regeneration, Creolisation
Abbreviation and Number: ENGL213
b) Dread Talk
c) Coinages
d) Code switching
e) Refusal to gloss
f) West Indian metaphor and archetype
iii. Voice and tone
a) Multiethnic speakers
b) Prevalence of irony
c) Protest poetry
d) Performance poetry
iv.
Rhythm and rhyme
a) Musical rhythms – blues, jazz, reggae
b) Musical rhyme schemes – blues
c) Cadence of West Indian speech
d) Rhyme and “Nation Language”
C. Drama
i. Form, structure and staging
a) Influence of street theatre
b) Merging of European, African, and Asian traditions
c) West Indian-style spectacle
d) Incorporation of the performing arts
ii. Language and tone
a) Code switching
b) Satire and irony
c) Influence of African griot style
iii. Characterisation
a) Incorporation of mythic and folkloric figures
b) Incorporation of characters from secular festivals
c) The folk
III.
Possible Themes
Several of the following themes may be examined
A. History and Politics
i. Colonialism
ii. Post-colonialism
iii. Neo-colonialism
iv. Decolonisation
B. Culture
i. Creolisation
ii. Hybridity
iii. Myth and folklore
iv. Tradition vs. modernity
v. Urban vs. rural
vi. Language
C. Class, Race, and Ethnicity
i. Afro-Caribbean
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The College of The Bahamas
AB Paper No.: 15-40
Course Outline
Title: West Indian Literature: Decolonisation, Regeneration, Creolisation
Abbreviation and Number: ENGL213
ii. Indo-Caribbean
iii. Anglo-Caribbean
iv. Chinese-Caribbean
v. Hybridity
D. Gender and Sexuality
i. Patriarchy
ii. Double colonization
iii. Absent father
iv. Male-female relationships
v. Sexual identities
E. Migration
i. Exile
ii. Caribbean/diasporic identity
ASSESSMENT
In-class and homework assignments……………….. 30%
Oral presentation……………………………………… 10%
Essays………………….…………………..………….. 30%
Final research paper………………………………….. 30%
Total…………………………………………………….100%
REQUIRED TEXTS
One anthology of short fiction
One comprehensive poetry anthology
Two full-length works of drama
Two novels
The following is a suggested list of titles from among which lecturers may choose:
Short Fiction
Brown, Stewart and John Wickham, eds. The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories. New York: Oxford UP, 2002.
Print.
Markham, E.A., ed. The Penguin Book of Caribbean Short Stories. London: Penguin, 1997. Print.
Poetry
Brown, Stewart and Mark McWatt, eds. The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.
Burnett, Paula, ed. The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English. London: Penguin, 2005. Print.
McDonald, Ian and Stewart Brodn, eds. The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry. Oxford: Heinemann Educational,
1996. Print.
Drama
Gibbons, Rawle. A Calypso Trilogy. Kingston: Ian Randle, 1999. Print.
Hill, Errol, ed. Plays For Today. Kingston: Longman, 1985. Print.
Walcott, Derek. Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990. Print.
Waters, Erika and David Edgecombe, eds. Contemporary Drama of the Caribbean. St. Croix: Caribbean Writer,
2001. Print.
Novels
Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.
---. The Farming of Bones.New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.
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The College of The Bahamas
AB Paper No.: 15-40
Course Outline
Title: West Indian Literature: Decolonisation, Regeneration, Creolisation
Abbreviation and Number: ENGL213
Hodge, Merle. Crick, Crack Monkey. London: Heinemann, 1981. Print.
Kincaid, Jamaica. Annie John. London: Vintage, 1999. Print.
---. Lucy. New York: Plume, 1991. Print.
Lamming, George. In the Castle of My Skin. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1991. Print.
---. Season of Adventure. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1999. Print.
Lovelace, Earl. The Dragon Can’t Dance. New York: Persea, 2002. Print.
---. The Wine of Astonishment. Kingston: Heinemann, 1986. Print.
Mais, Roger. Brother Man. London: Heinemann, 1974. Print.
---. The Hills Were Joyful Together. Oxford: Heinemann, 1981. Print.
Marshall, Paule. Brown Girl, Brownstones. New York: Feminist P, 1981. Print.
---. The Chosen Place, The Timeless People. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.
McKay, Claude. Banana Bottom. Tyler, TX: X Press, 1991. Print.
Miller, Kai. The Same Earth. London: Phoenix, 2008. Print.
---. The Last Warner Woman. Minneapolis: Coffee House P, 2012. Print.
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: Norton, 1998. Print.
SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS/MATERIALS
Benitez-Rojo, Antonio. The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective. Durham: Duke UP,
1996. Print.
Birbalsingh, Frank, ed. Frontiers in Caribbean Literature in English. New York: St. Martin’s, 1996. Print.
Boyce Davies, Carole and Elaine Savory Fido. Out of the Kumbla: Caribbean Women and Literature. Trenton, N.J.:
Africa World P, 1990. Print.
Brathwaite, “Jazz and the West Indian Novel” Roots. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1993. Print.
---. “History of the Voice.” Roots. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1993. Print.
Breiner, Laurence. An Introduction to West Indian Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.
Bucknor, Michael and Alison Donnell. The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature. London:
Routledge, 2011. Print.
Chamberlin, Edward J. Come Back to Me My Language: Poetry of the West Indies. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart,
1993. Print.
Cudjoe, Selwyn. Caribbean Women Writers. Wellesley: Calaloux, 1990. Print.
Donnell, Alison. Twentieth Century Caribbean Literature: Critical Moments in Anglophone Literary History. London:
Routledge, 2006. Print.
Edmondson, Belinda. Making Men: Gender, Authority and Women’s Writing in Caribbean Narrative. Durham: Duke
UP, 1999. Print.
Hamner, Robert D. Derek Walcott. Twayne World Authors’ Series. Boston: Twayne, 1981. Print.
James, Louis. Caribbean Literature in English. London: Longman, 1999. Print.
King, Bruce, ed. West Indian Literature. London: Macmillan, 1994. Print.
Knight, Franklin G. The Caribbean: Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism. New York: Oxford UP, 1990. Print.
LaGuerre, Michael. Diasporic Citizenship: Haitian Americans in Transnational America. New York: St. Martin’s P,
1998. Print.
Mehta, Brinda. Diasporic (Dis)locations: Indo-Caribbean Women Writers Negotiate the Kala Pani. Kingston: UWI P,
2004. Print.
Morris, Mervyn. Is English We Speaking. Kingston: Ian Randle, 1999. Print.
Newson, Adele and Linda Strong-Leek. Wnds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers
and Scholars. New York: Peter Lang, 1998. Print.
Nourbese Philip, Marlene. A Genealogoy of Resistance and Other Essays. Toronto: Mercury P, 1997. Print.
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The College of The Bahamas
AB Paper No.: 15-40
Course Outline
Title: West Indian Literature: Decolonisation, Regeneration, Creolisation
Abbreviation and Number: ENGL213
O’Callaghan, Evelyn. Woman Version: Theoretical Approaches to West Indian Fiction by Women. New York: St.
Martin’s, 1993. Print.
Patterson, Richard F. Caribbean Passages: A critical Perspective on New Fiction from the West Indies. Boulder:
Lynne Renner, 1998. Print.
Pollard, Velma. Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari. (1994) Kingston: Canoe P, 2000. Print.
Puri, Shalini. The Caribbean Postcolonial: Social Equality, Post-Nationalism, and Cultural Hybridity. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.
Rahim, Jennifer and Barbara Lalla. Beyond Borders: Cross-Culturalism and the Caribbean Canon. Kingston: UWI P,
2009. Print.
Ramchand, Kenneth. Studies in West Indian Literature: Prose Fiction. London: Macmillan, 1994. Print.
---. The West Indian Novel and Its Background (1970) London: Heinemann, 1983. Print.
Roberts, Peter. From Oral to Literate Culture: Colonial Experience in the English West Indies. Kingston: UWI P,
1997. Print.
Stone, Judy. Studies in West Indian Literature: Theatre. London: Macmillan, 1994. Print.
Torres-Saillant, Silvio. Caribbean Poetics: Toward and Aesthetic of West Indian Literature (1997) Leeds: Peepal Tree
P, 2013. Print.
Williams, Eric. From Columbus to Castro: the History of the Caribbean, 1492-1969 (1970) London: Vintage, 1984.
Print.
Wilson-Tagoe, Nana. Historical Thought and Literary Representation in West Indian Literature. Gainesville: UP of
Florida, 1998. Print.
JOURNALS
Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal (Online)
Ariel: A Review of International English Literature
Bim: Arts for the 21st Century
Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters
Callaloo: A Journal of African, African-American and Caribbean Arts
Caribbean Quarterly
Caribbean Writer Journal
Jamaica Journal
Journal of Caribbean Literatures
Journal of Literary Research
Journal of Literature
Journal of West Indian Literature
Jouvert: Journal of Postcolonial Studies
Macmere: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars
Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora
Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language and Culture
Small Axe: A Caribbean Platform for Criticism
WEBSITES
http://www.cob.edu.bs/library
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/world_link.htm#caribbean
http://www.postcolonialweb.org
http://www.libarts.usok.edu/english/faculty/stein/world/caribbean
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